Advancing a long career in child welfare to the next level

The New York Foundling has brought on Jennifer March as its new chief advancement officer, a veteran of the nonprofit world and city government.  She worked for the City Council for nearly a decade during a time of drastic change in the way the city handled services for children when the Child Welfare Agency was re-structured into the Administration for Child Services. She then led the Citizens Committee for Children for over a decade. The groundwork she has laid building rapport and professional alliances will benefit The Foundling at a time of uncertainty for organizations dedicated to assisting New York City’s vulnerable youth.

The Foundling began in 1869, when the Sisters of Charity began taking-in infants abandoned on the streets of the five boroughs, and now has programs throughout the state and Puerto Rico that assist families with foster care, supportive housing, mental health, juvenile justice and services for people with developmental disabilities. The organization leans heavily on innovative funding sources to pilot and develop new evidence-based programs that improve the lives of children, families and communities. Many of the programs incubated at The Foundling go on to scale into public sector initiatives.

The CAO is a new senior cabinet position that will lead The Foundling’s fundraising strategy and operations, with a focus on expanding its major donor program and corporate funding streams. March will oversee The Foundling’s entire development team and lead the board’s development committee. 

“Bringing Jen to our team was a remarkable opportunity to grow our impact and capacity. I have known and trusted Jen since the earliest days of my career here in New York City. No one knows this work or its partners in government, philanthropy and the corporate sector better,” said Melanie Hartzog, president and CEO of The New York Foundling who has worked with March in the past. “Jen’s leadership and expertise will help us finance and develop a new generation of programs that could one day change the lives of tens of thousands of families across New York and Puerto Rico. I am so delighted to welcome her to The Foundling.” 

March comes to The Foundling after serving as the executive director of the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York for the last 17 years. A passionate advocate for children, youth, and families, she has led successful legislative, policy, and budget reforms, achieving historic victories across New York City and state. Under March’s leadership, CCC expanded its staff and budget and developed the Keeping Track Online database, a key resource for understanding and advocating for children’s needs. She has championed campaigns to address the wage gap for early educators, expand early childhood education, and raise the age of criminal responsibility in New York.

Originally from Upstate, March has lived in the city since 1989 and is a longtime Upper West Sider and single mom with a cat named Blue who also dedicates much of her time attending to her elder parents. New York Nonprofit Media sat down with March right before she started the job on Tuesday to speak with her about her new role.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You've had some tremendous wins in your career, you know, chalking up, “Raise the Age” and “Pre-K for All” among your greatest victories. What do you view as some of your others? And what, if anything, do you regret the most about sacrificing to get those wins.

I mean, I think, in in addition to achieving success with passing transformative pieces of legislation like “Raise the Age” or helping to inform and secure resources for things like “Pre-k for All” I often view the biggest victories to be kind of the infrastructure that's created over time to support successful advocacy. So creating issue specific advocacy campaigns that bring resources, private resources to lobbyists and PR firms or you know, investing in participatory research in communities that can help to identify from the perspective of community members what needs what is working, what isn't working and what needs to change. So often, I think what gets overlooked in successes is the relationships formed, the collaborations created either citywide or statewide, that actually result in real change.

And disappointments? 

In terms of biggest disappointments, I would say changing practice, changing laws, improving the lives of people takes persistence, and often the change we seek to secure takes years rather than months, and that can be hard. 

I noticed that in your advocacy you've emphasized doubling-back and making sure that your wins are actually implemented. A lot of people don't even bother to do that part of it. I see that you've tried to do that. In this context, you had a lot of control over policy. You're coming from a role where you led all aspects of a nonprofit as the executive director,  to a new position where it looks like your primary responsibilities will be mostly in developmental and public image management capacities as chief advancement officer. Do you think letting go of the policy piece of your role will be difficult for you? Will you miss it?

I think from my perspective, this new role is an opportunity to think about how to bring private resources, either from individuals, corporations or foundations to the Foundlings work in robust ways and I think the ability to resource well, piloting new initiatives or expanding the reach of something that's working ultimately has a fundamental impact on the field and on policy. So while I won't be the person involved in taking the lessons learned from what's being resourced or built or tested to advocate at the state, local or federal level. I think the role of development is fundamentally tied to systems change.  So for me. It's a consistent through line.

Can't argue with that. How have you managed to seemingly stay optimistic in a field where many people burn out? I know former executive directors of nonprofits who have quit after the amount of time that they've put in and gone into completely different fields, just to save their own sanity. The work is arduous. How do you keep it up? What’s your magic? Where's the motivation? How do you keep trudging through it?

Some of the most meaningful things about this field and the work are the relationships formed over time with funders, donors, elected officials, appointed officials, direct service staff colleagues. And I think, actually, one of the reasons I was really, really excited about this opportunity at New York. Foundling is the opportunity to work with Melanie Hartzog and her team.  It is really a chance of a lifetime. She's an exceptional leader and has played many different roles in different institutions, of course, in New York City.  So for me, what keeps me going, whether when I was at CCC, or now, this new opportunity, is really with whom you work every day, both inside institutions and partners outside of institutions is really what has kept me really excited about the opportunities in this sector.

When did you realize you wanted to work in nonprofits?

I was always intrigued by the nonprofit community when I was in graduate school studying political science. But I had the opportunity in graduate school to work for the New York City Council Finance Division, and I stayed there about 8 years. So during that time period I interacted a lot with the nonprofit community. and in 2001 made the leap from city government to nonprofits working for CCC. I just witnessed really great nonprofits while I was at the New York City Council Finance Division, and really wanted to explore work outside of government because of that.

Was there anyone in particular that motivated you that inspired you?

There were many, many people and it's interesting many of the institutions that inspired me and continue to inspire me. At that time I was at the early stage of my career, I was a budget analyst for social services. So, I spent a great deal of time working with people in the child welfare and juvenile justice community, of which New York Foundling is a part.

And there had just been a big change in ACS Right? Wasn’t it David Dinkins right before Rudy Giuliani who changed the whole child care system in the city? So there was still that.  The work was still really raw, and new right? Kind of exciting, and new ground to till?

Well, Giuliani himself established ACS at that time as a separate agency. Yeah.

What are the things in your opinion that define a healthy nonprofit. Do you put more emphasis on program effectiveness, financial health, operational efficiency or transparency? Are there things that you're kind of known for?

I think all of those things are essential ingredients. I think a high functioning board. A collegial atmosphere among staff (where the true collaboration and transparency are prioritized), obviously strong, strong, fiscal management, and I would also say, the ability to partner effectively with institutions external to the organization are key as well.

And a closing question: Picture yourself 15 to 20 years from now, looking back at your work at New York Foundling, as you may be hoping to retire. What do you hope you'll be able to say about your accomplishments at the time? 

I  would say, the the breadth of what New York Foundling does every day across communities. Whether it's work within developmental disabilities, behavioral health care, child welfare, juvenile justice, education, head start is really incredibly impressive, and I hope that my work as a senior team member helps bring essential resources to test and pilot new things to not only improve practice there, but the reach of of programs and the impact of programs and ultimately inform the field. From my first days working at the City Council, I’ve devoted myself to the mission of serving children and families. It’s in my DNA. And the opportunity to help support and innovate programs at an organization with the Foundling’s scale and reach is so exciting. I cannot wait to begin bringing partners across the city together so we can find new and better ways to make an impact for families in need.